this is "cnn tonight." i am don lemon. we are hours away from michael cohen's public testimony about his years as donald trump's personal lawyer and fixer. >> i look forward for tomorrow to be able to tell the american people my story and i am going

to let the american people decide exactly who's telling the truth. >> so here what i say the white house is trying to do. the white house is trying to down play cohen's testimony. it is going to be a moment that makes history. just as big as john dean's congressional testimony that riveted the nation decades ago. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. if it is not removed, the president will be killed by it. i told him that it is important that this cancer be removed immediately. >> then there was the iran scandal in the 1980s. a defining event during reagan's presidency, and as the congressional testimony. >> as i told you yesterday that i was going to tell you the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly, well, this is the truth. i did the grossest and

misjudgment that i have made in my life. >> and of course the russian investigation. and question about possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia have consumed donald trump's presidency for more than two years. >> i don't think it is for me to say whether the conversation i have with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a disturbing thing and concerning but that's a conclusion i am sure the special counsel will work towards to understand what the intention was there and whether it is an offense. >> is the special counsel investigation taking too long? has he deliberately slow his pace? would the american people look back at it is a waste of time. >> i can assure you that director mueller is moving as quickly as possible and doing it right. >> if the president committed obstruction of justice, fire the director of fbi or shut down our investigation of russia's malign

activity and supporting his campai campaign, as a counter intelligence investigator, you have to ask yourself why would the president of the united states do that? >> very interesting. i want to bring in a man who knows all about this. you saw him in the clip earlier speaking during nixon and the watergate's hearing. let's bring in mr. john dean, thank you very much. i am sure this takes you back. michael cohen is testifying tomorrow, you have been in this position, what is it like to be in the spotlight to testify against a sitting president. >> well, it is not a comfortable seat. i worked as a committee counsel so i knew both what was behind the table and in front of the table. i have been in both positions. it is actually friendlier than two weeks in court where they have rules of evidence. there were no rules of evidence before the house or the senate.

but, i hope he sitz there alone and he does not lean on counsel. i am sure he's going to tell the truth because there is absolutely no reason in the world that he would lie at this stage. he admitted to that. he's apologizing to the senate for it. i am sure he'll do the same for the house. i think he's in a good position to tell us a unique story and insider story of this president and the early days of his presidency and plus the path of his business history. > >> do you think that -- people have been questioning or wondering for years, what was more damaging to this president, was it the actual nitty-gritty of the story or was it your testimony to see the character who's sitting in the oval office

and the way he conducted himself and the business of the country. >> a couple of things, don. the president denied all my testimonies. he said he had known nothing of the cover up until i told him as march 21st, which i knew it was a gross lie but i did not have a lot of evidence to prove it. he thought that he could deal with that. i was very aware of the atmosphere in which this happened. i had been involved and trying to shut down a prior break-in at the brooking institutes and to get paper out of there directly ordered by the president as we know on the tapes today to more mundane things. >> i am going to play some of that. this is the testimony to some of

it that you are talking about, watch this. >> after i was told that i had been taped. >> who told isn't it tryou? >> my lawyer told me. i thought there is only one occasion that i was occurred where i had a direct conversation with the president because all the circumstance seems to indicate that, that was on the april 15th meeting. i don't know if i was or suggested that the government may want to listen to that tape. if they listen to that tape, they would have some idea of the dimensions of what was involved. >> i am sorry to cut you off. i thought it was important. i can play it and backup of what you are saying. go on. >> i did. that was one of the things i put in my testimony that i had been recorded based on remarks that nixon had made to prosecutors that he said i made a fault

statement to him and i had immunity when i in fact did have it. he said he had it on tape. it just clicked at that moment that indeed that and probably other conversations were recorded based on his behavior which i was grilled on some extent during my testimony and later was cooperated when alex butterfield came up. yes, probably all of his conversations were recorded. i would think michael cohen would be wise to put little things in as well as big things. i did not speculate on it very much. that was the only thing i speculated on. it was kind of a boot trap because i knew it was my word against nixon and many others. >> i want to play a clip of something you said when you testified before congress during watergate. watch this.

>> the fact that i assisted another perjury testimony, the fact that i made personal use of funds that were in my custody is f far easier to talk about these things. the president told me i had done a good job and he appreciated how difficult the task had been. the president was pleased that the case had stopped. others have done much nmore difficult thing as i have done. all i have been able to do is contain the case and assist and keeping it out of the white house. i also told him that there was a long way to go before this matter would end and i certainly could make no assurances that the day would not come when this matter would start to unravel. >> a similar question to what i

asked you before, john, you told the world what it was like inside the nixon's administration. do you think we'll get that detail inside the trump's world tomorrow? >> i do. we have a man who works for this president for ten years before he became president. only had incidents with them after he became president. i think he's going to tell exactly what it is like to deal with this man and the way he operates. it is not a highly professional organization. i think we'll get in a peek into. they moved the family business into the white house now. we'll see a lot of similarities in what cohen can report about his real estate business and the way he runs the white house. >> one more question for you, i think about this, the night before your testimony, how were you feeling? how do you think he's feeling? >> well, i think those cheap

shots don't really register. you know what other people are doing. that was done to me because it was coming to united states the weak my testimony was scheduled. they delayed it for a week and used that week to do nothing but attack me. as a result, it built up the audience for the testimony. 85 million people ended up tuning in. i am sure that hurt the president. >> john dean, pleasure. thank you, sir. >> thank you, don. let's bring in shymon prokupecz. what do you think? >> there has never been someone as close to with intimate knowledge of the president who's

going before congress and testifying in an adversary way. did not happen with clinton or obama or george h.w. bush orr or reagan. most people don't have fixers. if you have a fixer that means you were involved in some shenanigans. >> something is broken. >> that's not a person you want as an adversary going up on the hill during your presidency. we'll know the full details of what happens to stormy daniels. >> let's talk about today first and we'll talk about tomorrow. he testified today behind closed doors. what do we know? >> he was apologetic. that was one of the big things that people were willing to share. he apologized for lying.

this was a committee that he pleaded guilty and admitted that he lied to protect the president about the moscow project. he went in there today and apologized to them for lying. he was there for several hours being grilled by staffers from the committee who reall really -- these are the people who really for the last two years have been digging in on this investigation and really know entirely everything about this investigation and they were the folks that were grilling him today. we saw him come out afterwards, he seemed tired and you can see in his face, he was happy to be there but there was a sense of relief. the fact that he came and spoke to cameras and thanked people for being there and he knows tomorrow is going to be a big day. there is that he's facing because of his credibility issues. we'll see how he does and republicans certainly have already set this up where they'll go after him on everything. >> as you know, if you are

someone in the public spotlight, you have to perform, it is harrowing and fearful before you actually do it. once you sit there and you are comfortable -- i think he may be going through that right now, performance anxiety. >> yeah. >> right? he's getting hit by a lot of people. matt gaetz and rudy giuliani is calling him a liar, a rat and scum. he never explained the president would keep someone who's a liar or a scum for ten years. what did he expect him to do? >> what's a rat? >> a rat is a term that a criminal organization uses for someone that turns against him. a rat in the vernacular that rudy giuliani uses, he prosecuted a lot of mobsters so it is unusual for him to use that term. a rat is someone who breaks the

code. it is a term that the mob uses. it is bizarre for trump's lawyer to say he's a rat. this guy knew stuff and he has stuff on us and he's going out there and telling everyone about it. >> he does have a lot of information, he talked to him all the way through the election and into the white house. he does have a lot of information. >> this is what you do everyday. we sit here and people talk about well, it was a porn star or whatever sm-- a lot of this information came from him, aboarding air force one, lying, and the fbi confiscating the records of michael cohen. a lot of this information especially the southern district of new york all rolled out because of -- >> because of the raid, it started with the mueller investigation. >> we learned a lot of information that we know publicly now. >> because of what michael cohen

came into court and a lot of the good work that the fbi did in terms of gathering. there is a lot of corroborations outside of what michael cohen have said. he implicated and tomorrow i think we are going to really hear the intricate details of how all of this was divide and the scheme to pay off these women and how michael cohen was brought into it. i think that's going to be, you know, and any administration and presidency, this would be the biggest scandal, right? >> you would never thought the president is involved in something like this. >> people want to down play. i got to go, quickly. >> michael cohen pled guilty to the scheme, this campaign finance scheme to pay off the women. we know trump did not mention his name out the indictment. cohen was not anxious to plea guilty to that. a lot of republicans don't believe it is a crime. i will be watching how much does michael cohen caught to the fact

that yes, this is a crime or does he express any reluctant that he pled guilty to that. he was not -- obviously, he was a little reluctant. >> it is my belief that a lot of this will play out tomorrow and we'll be able to figure it out. i would bet that he probably is not sure how he's going to answer these questions. in the moment, we'll learn a lot. thank you both. >> millions of people will be listening as michael cohen testifies tomorrow, including prosecutors from the soeuthern district of new york. so, what can we all learn? get longwear coverage from our most lightweight, breathable formula.

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right? >> oh boy, what a day tomorrow is going to be. we are going to learn, he's going to talk a lot about the sdny. >> we'll learn more about this than we know, do you think? >> yes, this is an unusual and sort of awkward position in some sense because it is the southern district of new york. we know the southern district has major investigations going on right now of the trump org. and the inaugural fund. it is a very change position as a prosecutor. when you are investigating something, it is tightly under wrapped. the idea of having somebody who's a witness and announcing things and giving details are really unusual and problematic. one of the things we discussed before is how could the southern district be okay with this? >> so do you guys think -- okay, that's a good one, hold on.

why do you say that? >> because otherwise you would not sign off on it. there is a memo out there witinn the committee saying we consulted with the southern district and they are okay with us based on these including the financial part of it. if i am a prosecutor, we would like to call a witness. no way, unless i am way beyond it and i got documents and i don't need him anymore. >> elijah cummings says he consulted with sdny and discussed of the parameter of the hearing. do you think there are still worries beyond this. >> they must have been okay with it. the question is especially in this public hearing, how much is he going to have time to say and should the question be the kind

of question to get more information and we don't know yet. those are structure things that we don't know until tomorrow. >> we talked a little bit about this. the other night when you were on the show about questioning. it is all in the questioning. if you were advising the committee, the democrats, on questioning, what would you tell them? >> for the democrats, i would say stick to the facts. this should not become michael cohen telling tales of mean things of trump did distaste full things or let's stick with what's corroborated and what does he have documentation of, keep it straightforward. you don't have to make the whole world love michael cohen if you are the democrats. you just have to make the world believe him now. republicans, only the flip side of that. don't do this garbage like matt gaetz did today. you have a guy of a long

rutherfo record of lying. hammer the theme of credibility. >> they can't help themselves. >> when i saw the gaetz's tweet, it is exactly what they should not do. >> if they think michael cohen is in there tomorrow lying to them and they ultimately want to refer perjury charge, they have to craft the question carefully so it is clean question or answer so that he's saying something factual. >> if he's telling the truth then -- >> then they won't have the perjury charge. that's what it is all about in the hearing. they don't need that afterwards. they want the spectacle. >> let's talk about these hush money payments. he's likely to be asked about the two trump organization executives who approved reimbursing him for the money he paid to stormy daniels and also karen mcdougal, this story is

about stormy daniels. do you have any idea who those executives may be? >> executive number two is the person who had to get the okay for weisselberg to make those payments. >> weisselberg and michael cohen, are they the two people that you don't want testifying? >> yes. >> i mean there are questions. we know trump org. is controlled by a small circle. this is one of the big mysteries that we'll have a clear answer tomorrow. >> go on, did you want to say something? >> i mean, yes, but not about that. >> its got to be someone who's over the cfo or it is going to be one of the higher level executives or the one of the children, right?

eric, don jr. or eventually ivanka. >> the committee, do you think they're going to ask about that? >> it is not clear to me how much cohen will know about this. he was not part of the campaign formally. he did not go in at the administration. i thisnk they'll try to ask abot it a little bit but it is not clear. >> that's more of an expedition. the inaugural is something that i would guess he would have some information about. he was right there. so i would take a shot there, i would see what he knows and give us any information about potentially donations from foreign nationals. part of what will happen tomorrow will be targeted and part of it will be fact-finding. >> good advise, don't grand stand and let him speak and craft your questions carefully. >> thank you both. >> only hours away from michael

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[ ding ] [ cooing ] [ door closes ] [ cooing ] ♪ [ ding ] show me fish on youtube. say it and see it with the x1voice remote. from netflix, prime video,youtube and even movie tickets. just say get "dragon tickets". it is the eve of michael cohen's public testimony in front of the committee. one republican congressman is threatening congress with a tweet. he'll be questioning cohen tomorrow as a member of the house oversight committee. >> you know what i am talking

about with this tweet with matt gaetz. >> he should be for every witness being able to testify, he's threatening cohen with revealing information about alleged girlfriend, it is inappropriate and not protected by the speech and debate clause. it is beneath the dignity frankly for anyone in congress. >> what was your response when you saw it? >> i tweeted out. i talked to him before, man, what are you thinking? why are you doing this? this is inappropriate and undermining everything you talked about of reforming congress or institutions. >> did he respond to you? >> i have not heard. >> it sounds something out of a mob movie. did you hear a sitting congressman doing something about this? >> the ethics committee should look into it. i think there needs to be a full investigation in that kind

intimidation and zero tolerance. i don't understand is what do they have to gain? it is not like trump is appointed. sometimes you have to wonder whether republicans realize that we are a separate branch of government that we don't work for donald trump. >> if you watch him on television, he acts as a surrogate for the president in his speech and response, rarely if ever i can recall criticizing the president. no one is perfect, we all deserved to be criticized at times. essential willly a surrogate fo president. it has been reported that he communicated with the president all the time. do you think the president encouraged him to do this? >> there is one thing to be a surrogate for the president on policies. it is another thing to advocate your constitutional responsibility to be an independent branch of government and coordinate and defending the

president and on strubstructing inquiry of congress. >> tomorrow is going to be historic, what do you want to ask him? >> first, i want to stick to the facts. i want to have michael cohen tell us what did he communicate with the white house about his testimony previously to congress, did the people instructed him to lie or what does he know that the public does not know because the southern district of new york said that he was not fully cooperative in telling them everything he knew. what was it that he did not tell. michael cohen made a lot of mistakes and committed crimes. this is a chance for him to come clean and level with the american people and stick to the facts and tell us the story. and a moment of redemption for him and healing for this country. let's get the facts out. >> cohen is going to bring some documents that prove the payments of the president

alleged mistresses. if he does, will those be made public? >> it should. obviously, he shares those do you means as testimony as public, i don't see any grounds under which he would not be able to make it public. the special counsel and southern district of new york signed off all the testimonies and what he'll be presenting. >> so no grand standing tomorrow. this is about the american people and people want to hear from michael cohen and not necessarily congressmen talking or grilling or asking questions. >> i said to my colleagues, no one in the country knows who we are. what they want to know or judge is michael cohen. they're not going to say what question did rakann asked? >> we need to let him tell the story and not trying to score

political points which will undermine serious evidence. >> it is a real pleasure. >> thank you. >> after a decade of the president's side, just how much does michael cohen know. will the president see his testimony as the ultimate betrayal? ultra vivid color. get $200 off select xps13 laptops at dell.com ♪ at dell.com with tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. fixodent ultra-max hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. so now you can eat tough food without worry. fixodent and forget it. frstill, we never stoppedss wmaking it stronger.e. faster. smarter. because to be the best,

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michael cohen was known as donald trump's fixer for over a decade. what did he do to earn that title? cohen will be asked that tomorrow. joining me now is michael d'antoni, and gary grath is here as well.

gentlemen, i am so happy to have you on this evening. michael, you wrote the book on trump. how much is michael cohen really know about president trump? >> well, to quote donald trump, he knows everything. that's what the president and businessman donald trump told me. bring your questions to michael cohen, he's got all the answers. this explains why the president will be staying up late to watch michael cohen's testimony and explains why this is really his worst nightmare to have a person who was present for ten years, inside every real estate deal or every endorsement arrangement or inside "the apprentice," he saw and heard just about everything so he'll have a lot to say. >> what about the president's children? how much does cohen know about them? >> he was as devoted to the children as he was the man he called mr. trump.

when he said i will take a bullet for him, i think he had the same feeling for eric and don jr. and ivanka. >> the question is how much do they have to hide? >> i think we are sheltered by some of the assorted details when they were younger. i believe by the time the president became president-elect, all secrets were in their hands. this . >> we know he's keconnected wit that infamous meeting in july of 2016 that plans for trump tower and he was in touch with wikileaks. how worry should he be of being indicted? >> well, he should be nervous for two reasons. above and beyond that which you said. the first is that mueller has

not interviewed him. he has not sought out an interview. he has not tried to sit down for questions with don jr. at this point in a prosecution and a probe like mueller, that's actually a danger sidgn. that's not a good sign. that's more likely to mean that you are the target of the investigation rather than an incident by stander to it. second, as as we are talking about earlier tonight of the challenge for don jr. appears to be in some of his congressional testimony. robert mueller has terms that he's willing to prosecute people lying to congress. that's one of the things that'll be brought up with michael cohen and his credibility tomorrow. we have reasons to believe that democrats on capitol hill believes that don jr. shares some of those same lies about

the trump tower/moscow deal with the congressional committee with his own hearing and those transcripts were handed over to the house of intelligence committee to mueller's probe. >> let's talk about the national enquirer. will we learn of other women tomorrow? >> this is really an interesting question. no one is going to take michael cohen at his word tomorrow. prosecutors should seize 292,000 documents, texts or e-mails, or telephone calls or recordings from michael cohen of that april raid last year, and that michael cohen is going to be showing those documents.

both michael cohen's attorney and the justice department has a vested interest in making sure that every single thing that michael cohen is saying can be backed up with evidence. they need to be preserving michael cohen credibility as a future witness in possible trials. so, you can be sure that anything that michael cohen says verbally tomorrow, there is document backup that the justice department or michael cohen's own counsel have signed off onto ensure that there is solid evidence. >> michael cohen was loyal to the president for a long time even after we found out about the hush money payment. now a sitting congressman is going after him.

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ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you, and visit myrbetriq.com to learn more. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. here is the breaking news. we have gotten some information from our shimon prokupecz. the breaking news on michael cohen's testimony. also with me elie honig, jennifer rodgers, michael dantonio. let's get to it. i find it very interesting. i'm going to let you do this. he addresses the chairman. he says ranking member jordan, chairman cummings, ranking member jordan, and he says i recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. it is for this reason that i have incorporated into this opening statement documents that are irrefutable and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful. those documents are? >> well, he has a check.

one of the things he says is he has a check that the president himself paid him for the hush money. it was part of the payment, part of the plan. this is his opening statement. it's 20 pages that he intends to read. michael cohen tomorrow before members of congress. i mean, he's not holding back here, don. >> let me read this. "i am providing the committee today with several documents. these documents include a copy of a check mr. trump wrote from his personal bank account after he became president to reimburse me for the hush money payments i made to cover up his affair with an adult film star and prevent damage to his campaign." what does that mean for him legally? >> boy. it means he's liable for those cover-up payments. right? and there's documentation of it. it means it was a personal transaction between the president and there's some aspect of it that wasn't even funneled through the trump org to cover it up. all sorts of stuff in here. the other thing that jumps out at me is the julian assange wikileaks. stuff on page 2. >> well, first of all, he goes,

"i am ashamed because i know what mr. trump is." this is michael cohen speaking tomorrow. this is his testimony. he is a racist. he is a con man. he is a cheat. he talks about that. he was presidential -- was a presidential candidate who knew that roger stone was talking with julian assange about a wikileaks drop of the democratic national committee e-mails." and then he goes on -- talk about that conversation. >> on page 10 he says, "in july 2016, days before the democratic convention, i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary announced that roger stone was on the phone. mr. trump put mr. stone on the speakerphone. mr. stone told mr. trump that he had just gotten off the phone with julian assange and that mr. assange told some stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr. trump responded by stating to the effect, wouldn't that be

great." >> go ahead. >> when stone was indicted a couple weeks ago, the big question was who in the trump campaign was directing him? right? there were these anonymized references in the indictment that senior campaign officials were directing stone to get in touch with wikileaks. looks like michael cohen's ready to answer that question. one of the people was donald trump. >> go ahead, jennifer. >> the other thing that's in here, we've been wondering about his testimony to congress, the false testimony to congress. and he says, in here he's talking about trump's involvement in that and he says, you know, to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it, did not directly tell me to lie to congress, that's not how he operates, but then goes on to say that trump's peshrsonal lawyers reviewed and edited his statement to congress, implying that trump and his lawyers were all over the statement he made to congress that the president knew was false. he's answering that question too. >> "he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had

an affair and lie to his wife about it. lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets. she is a kind person and she did not deserve that." i am giving the committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to ms. clifford's attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by ms. clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with mr. trump. this is exhibit 4 in my testimony." >> he's got receipts. >> exhibit 5 of the testimony shows i am providing a copy of the $35,000 check that president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august 1, 2017, when he was president of the united states, pursuant to the cover-up which was the basis of my guilty plea to reimburse me. the words used by mr. trump's tv lawyer for the illegal hush money i paid on his behalf. this $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year while he was

president. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws. you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court of the southern district of new york." >> yeah. so this is going to be devastating. >> wow. >> to say the least. here's more even that goes to the personal attacks against the president. this is what's going to really i think sting the president. he talks about him being a cheat. he's so -- he's giving the committee financial statements from 2011 in one of the exhibits to 2013 which he gave to deutschebank. we've been hearing a lot deutsche bank was one of the biggest lenders -- was the biggest lender to the president when everybody else wouldn't loan him money because obviously he had financial issues. this bank continually lent him money. so he's giving the committee, he says, these financial statements

where he asked, sent, trump sent financial statements to deutsche bank -- >> read that first, though. >> it says, "mr. trump is a cheat." >> is a cheat. >> then he says, "as previously stated i'm giving you these financial statements which he gave to deutsche bank to inquire about a loan to buy the buffalo bills and to forbes." and these are exhibits in my testimony. then the other thing he talks about is how -- >> wait, wait, can i read this? "it is my experience that mr. trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in forbes and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes." and he is producing exhibits for testimony of him deflating and inflating his financial interests. go on. >> the use of exhibits in this document is masterful and clearly was put together by someone who i think has experience in court because what they're doing is the exhibits are sort of fenceposts and they will support and prop up what michael cohen's saying. and when he gives this story of

the hush money payments, for example, it's one thing for michael cohen to just say let me tell you what happened. it's another thing every couple sentences to say and here's a check, here's a financial record, here's a bachk record. >> the records he kept on the president over the course of the ten years, my gosh, he's talking about how he has letters that he wrote to schools about his s.a.t. scores. i mean, as i mentioned, he says, i'm giving the committee today copies of a letter i sent at mr. trump's direction threatening schools with civil and criminal actions if mr. trump's grades or s.a.t. scores were ever disclosed without his permission. and then he writes "the irony wasn't lost on me at the time that mr. trump in 2011 had strongly criticized president obama for not releasing his grades." i mean, the records he kept. the financial statements from 2011 all these years. >> it's such a mix of really meaningful things, right? that could be crimes and the documentation to back those up. with kind of the personal like the guy's really a dirt bag and here's why and he even lied

about his grades. i think the mix of all that is really interesting and it comes off seeming kind of less petty because he's mixing it in with all these other truly improper things. >> let me read this. this is important. and i read it once and i'll read it again. and he says, "as i earlier stated, mr. trump knew roger stone -- knew from roger stone in advance about the wikileaks drop of e-mails." okay? "in july 2016, days before the democratic convention, i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary announced that roger stone was on the phone. mr. trump put mr. stone on the speakerphone. mr. stone told mr. trump that he had just gotten off the phone with julian assange and that mr. assange told mr. stone within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr. trump responded by stating the effect of wouldn't that be great." and then he goes on to say, "mr. trump is a racist.

the country has seen mr. trump court white supremacists and bigots. you have heard him call poorer countries shitholes. in private he is even worse. he once asked me if i could name a country run by a black person that wasn't a shithole. this was when barack obama was president of the united states. when we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in chicago he commented that only black people could live that way. and he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. and yet i continued to work for him." >> i think we need to make one more quick point about the trump tower meeting. he does raise that in here on page 17. he said that in the summer of 2017 i read all over the media there had been a meeting in trump tower in 2016 involving don jr. and others from the campaign with russians including a representative of the russian government and an e-mail setting up the meeting with the subject line "dirt on hillary clinton." he then says, "something clicked

in my mind." this is michael cohen speaking. "i remember being in the room with mr. trump probably in early june 2016 when something peculiar happened. don jr. came into the room and walked behind his father's desk, which in itself was unusual. people didn't just walk behind mr. trump's desk to talk to him. i recall don jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice which i could clearly here and saying, "the meeting is all set." and then he says, "i remember mr. trump saying, "okay, good, let me know." >> he's going to need more than just a gut feeling, though, to -- because he's going to be questioned about the meeting and about -- >> the testimony's -- >> julian assange. >> it's kind of a road map. so prosecutors know all this stuff already. he's told them all this. and what they've been doing with this testimony that we're now going to hear tomorrow for the first time is they're going out and trying to find more things. when he talks about phone calls, they're looking for phone records. when he talks about a conversation they're thinking about who else could have been in the room to give them corroboration of that. so they already know this and they've been working on it. we're seeing it for the first